I loved this movie, but one thing I didn't quite understand is the mechanics of the hooks. I thought perhaps Homer had a thumb left over that he used to move the hooks to grip, but at the end we see the arms are completely severed after the elbow. How did you make the hooks move to grip cigarettes and such?
shareThe hooks were designed to be operated by flexing the muscles in the wearer's upper arms. Harold Russell once remarked that he could do anything with his hooks that a person with hands could do except "pick up the check" at a restaurant.
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It's easier to be an individual than a god.
Actually, he flexed his mussels and shoulders in his back to get the hooks to operate.
shareI stand corrected. And he was certainly quite skilled in using his hooks.
But if I might add (with a good natured smile) I doubt if he had to use mussels to do it.
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It's easier to be an individual than a god.
Hmm, the way I saw it, he didn't "move" the hooks at all. When he went to lift the ice cream soda, he used one hook to open up the other hook so he could grasp the glass and straw. How much tension the hook required to hold the glass (or any other object, for that matter) I have no idea, but I didn't get the sense that he used his arm or back muscles to control the hook's operation except to wriggle out of the apparatus.
shareI think this video explains it pretty well. Interesting subject. I'd never thought about it before but I think Harold would have appreciated the interest and would have cheerfully demonstrated how his hooks worked. Homer too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ii7ByNe5SiM
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It's easier to be an individual than a god.
I forget, doesn't Harold explain it himself in "Diary of a Sergeant?" Let's watch and find out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xp1E5smfSDI
When he picks up the pilsner glass at the bar you see how the hooks move open by themselves without using another hook to open them. It was done by flexing muscles. If you really want to see something almost impossible watch the movie, "Freaks". In that one a man with no arms, or legs rolls, and lights a cigarette using his mouth.
The expression on Fred March, the feeling of guilt, is amazing in the first few scenes, the arial parts.
March's character probably felt like crap after spitting a quick lecture when Homer didn't want to help out, and was just sitting there. Finding out the reason why probably hit him hard. Which probably explains all the guilt he had on the entire plane trip, other than the normal sympathy anyone would have about the hooks.
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